Beyond the safe sea lanes of the Berserk Sea, in the Calamity Straits, the rampant storms almost blurred the line between reality and the Spirit World.
Dark clouds piled up, and streaks of deep, gloomy lightning flashed one after another, illuminating a massive, dark, and somber sailboat with an eerie greenish glow.
On its pale main sail was depicted a blooming, pitch-black tulip.
It was none other than the flagship of "Admiral of Hell" Ludwell, the "Black Tulip"!
Unlike the raging storm outside, the deck of the "Black Tulip" was remarkably calm.
Ludwell knelt on the deck, his silver-white mask, which obscured his features and contours, now extremely dim; in his tightly clenched right hand, the deep black Death Ring was erupting with terrifying suction.
Standing beneath the sail, Ince Zangwill, with a strange smile on his face, instantly had his eyes turn pitch black, as if stained with ink, and sinister patterns extended little by little, forming strange and distorted mystical symbols.
Accompanied by a low murmur of suppressed madness, his waist and ribs swelled under his clothes, and flesh squirmed, revealing four skinless arms entwined with blood vessels.
These arms quickly became covered in white feathers, and a deathly aura rippled outwards.
Ince Zangwill, having activated his incomplete Mythical Creature form, took out half a pure white skull from the bronze double-door at his glabella—it was the remaining half of a Death descendant's skull from his advancement to Nighthawk.
Firmly grasping a pure white quill in his hand, Ince Zangwill let out the mocking chuckle of the Red Angel Evil Spirit, but his actions did not stop; he wrote a few sentences on the half-skull, then unhesitatingly threw it towards Ludwell.
A more terrifying suction, accompanied by bone-chilling cold, erupted centered around that ring left by Death, causing the Admiral of Hell, who had been barely holding on to a kneeling position, to directly prostrate himself on the ground, his bones cracking audibly.
In the deep, storm-ravaged ocean, translucent, semi-illusory, hideous creatures crawled out, and pale corpses extended their hands, dangling with strips of rotting flesh.
Flames, some deep red, some chillingly cold, which even hurricanes could not extinguish, emerged, forming pairs of eyes.
Suddenly, this place seemed to transform into the entrance to hell, with all sorts of undead creatures crowding and surfacing, rushing like a tide, one after another, into the increasingly deep, dark ring.
The burden of forcibly using 0-08 to write fate directly caused the Red Angel Evil Spirit to lose control of its body, and Ince Zangwill, having regained control, looked gloomy and quickly exited his incomplete Mythical Creature form.
Looking at the black ring, which had swallowed an unknown number of specters and resentful spirits and was gradually emitting a strange heartbeat, Ince Zangwill's brow twitched violently, and a vague sense of dread intensified.
He decisively abandoned the idea of Spirit World traversing here and leaped from the deck, rushing out of the Calamity Straits.
To the east of the Berserk Sea, on Symeem Island, the furthest point of the Rorsted Archipelago.
Klein was curiously manipulating the several marionettes he had just acquired; these were all Sea God believers on Symeem Island who still adhered to bloody sacrifices, and from them, he also learned about the current situation of those Sea God believers.
Azik, who was sitting cross-legged not far away, suddenly opened his eyes and looked west, a hint of anger flashing across his deeply contoured face, and he coldly uttered a name:
"Ince Zangwill!"
After that snow-white skull was completely consumed, he felt the call from his own bloodline, and this familiar sensation instantly reminded him of the thief who stole his child's skull in Tingen City.
Hearing this name, Klein immediately stopped what he was doing, flashed to Azik's side, and asked with some surprise:
"Mr. Azik, you sensed his aura?"
After witnessing the power of 0-08 twice in Tingen and Backlund, he had been troubled by how to track this Nighthawk, never expecting to get information from Azik.
After receiving Azik's affirmative reply, Klein took a deep breath, took out the Sea God Scepter from "Rusco's Eye," and allowed Azik to grasp his shoulder, entering the colorful Spirit World.
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Southern Continent, Harvest Plains.
Sid Watson rubbed his eyes, carefully scrutinizing Dunn Smith, whom he hadn't seen for only two days, and after a long moment, he spoke incredulously:
"You've been promoted to Spirit Warlock?"
Dunn Smith nodded, glanced at a group of strangely dressed people not far away, and responded indifferently:
"Just by luck. Who are those people?"
Sighing with some envy, Sid Watson lowered his voice:
"Those are members of the Life School of Thought. Besides clearing out the Numinous Episcopate, we also need to help them clean up those traitors who joined the Rose School of Thought."
"The old man leading them, wearing a black eye patch, is even a demigod!"
Bringing Dunn back with him, Aaron glanced at Councilman Ricciardo, who had arrived from the Northern Continent, and casually set up a Wall of Spirituality to isolate external perception, then pointed to Duke Jorna "New Moon" beside him:
"I promised your Speaker before that I would help Her clear out those traitors who joined the Rose School of Thought."
"This is one of the three Dukes of the Sanguine; She needs to collect some information on the Rose School of Thought, so She will act with you."
Even with the eye patch, Ricciardo still bowed towards Jorna, seemingly unsurprised that the Sanguine would be involved in this matter.
Aaron raised an eyebrow, somewhat suspecting whether Will Auceptin had glimpsed something in the River of Fate.
Suppressing the thoughts in his mind, the projection of the "Star Crown" appeared, and Aaron's figure instantly vanished, directly roaming to Bernadette's Emerald Palace.
After handing Bernadette the blood of the Snake of Fate he had obtained from Will Auceptin, Aaron then asked:
"How is that Ferryman doing now?"
Sealing the silver blood, which contained countless wheels, into the "Wheel of Fortune" card, Bernadette nodded gently, and her right hand slightly lifted.
Colorful peach blossoms fell, and the figure of Arsas Eggers emerged from them; although his aura was still weak, the originally dilapidated Inner Underworld within his body had already been repaired.
Nodding with satisfaction, Aaron pointed his finger at the Ferryman's glabella, and wisps of dark golden mist seeped from his fingertip into the half-open Underworld Gate.
Arsas Eggers stood calmly in place, not attempting to resist, and after the Grounded Angel withdrew his finger, he spoke on his own initiative:
"The corruption from the Artificial Death on me has been cleared by the Pale Empress, so even if my injuries are not fully healed, I will not fall because of it."
"If you need me to, I can take you into the 'City of the Dead,' right now."